


Next Door

by hannahnyrie



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Light Angst, Mild Smut, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-07 06:57:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16849300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahnyrie/pseuds/hannahnyrie
Summary: [In which the Bellas settle into the house at the start of the new school year. The team captains have rooms next to each other, because it only makes sense to. They spend a lot of time together, nights turning into mornings in each other’s rooms, because they’re co-captains. They have a lot of responsibility between the two of them. That’s all.]





	1. Beginning

Chloe Beale stands in front of her window, in her room, in the Bella’s house. This is all still very new. Some of the girls are still unpacking, hanging things up on the walls, spraying room freshener all around. “I need to beat Lily to it,” Stacie grumbles to Chloe in the hallway. “She stuffed a ton of incense shit in her duffel. This house is getting filled with my scent first.” Chloe just nods, because with Stacie, that’s about all you can do. 

But she feels comfortable, so comfortable. Chloe feels warm having all of her Bellas around. Just the knowledge that this is it - that they will all be living here until they graduate, makes her feel whole. 

Getting their hands on the house was a miracle in itself. Aubrey, although out of Barden, pulled a lot of strings with the board of trustees to get the Bellas in. The girls constantly told her that they didn’t need the house, that they could function perfectly fine as a group without it. Besides, they had been living separately in dorms all this time, and things had turned out better than any of them could ever have hoped. Still, Aubrey fought tooth and nail and, like everything else she set her mind on, she got what she wanted. 

So they moved in. Beca was weary at first, calling Chloe often over the preceding summer with second thoughts.

“I dunno know Chlo. You know I love all the girls, like, seriously they’re my family.” 

“I know Beca.”

“I’m just feeling stressed about the whole thing.” 

“I know you are. And it’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being nervous about starting a new chapter.”

“Urgh. So sentimental. Remind me why I’m talking this out to you?”

“You’re the one who called me, Bec.” 

“Hmph.” 

Even over the phone, Chloe can read Beca like a book. She was nervous, sure. Beca was never one to love being in the company of a huge group of girls every waking moment (it was one of the main things that stopped her from wanting to join the Bellas in the first place.) But over months of getting to know the girls, and realizing that they were all much more than sparkly, pink-obsessed gossip machines, she relented and let them in. 

Then Beca had friends. Then Beca opened up more. Then Beca went out of her way to do nice things for them, to show them appreciation, to show them that she cared. That rock-hard edge transformed into a smooth, concaving pebble, ready to be tossed around, but in better form.

Chloe thinks it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

So she reminds Beca of it over a phone call or text everyday that summer. She sends her funny pictures of Amy passed out in the amphitheater, after an annual aca-initiation night. She sends her voice recordings of Jessica and Ashley attempting to sing every part in “One Day More” from Les Mis. 

Chloe sends Beca selfies with every Snapchat filter under the sun.

Chloe notices that Beca seems to take more time responding to those. Not a drastic stretch of time. But definitely longer than her typical “smh Amy” or “my money is on Stacie actually getting knocked up this year” texts. Those come through in seconds. Chloe’s selfies seem to hit Beca when she’s busy. When she does respond, it’s usually an emoji with its tongue out, or (and this usually happens at night) Beca will type “I miss you.” This always makes Chloe smile, leaves her in a good mood as she drifts off to sleep. Summers are hard without her friends.

On a particular Beca-said-I-miss-you-night, Chloe calls Aubrey and thanks her for getting the house again.

“I said I would, didn’t I?” 

“I know, and I knew you would! I’m just so happy, Bree. I miss the girls and I can’t wait to live with all of them.”

“I’m seriously jealous. Oh, did you send the girls the video of me on the roof you had me send you? What did Stacie think? I’ll bet her ass I can do more back handsprings than her.”

“Oh yeah, I actually only sent that one to Beca.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I’ve just been sending her videos every now and then lately. She’s just a little nervous about moving in with all the girls.”

“Yes, if I remember Miss Don’t Touch Me correctly. She wants to go through with it though?”

Chloe laughs. “Yeah, I think I’ve convinced her.” 

“Good.” Aubrey paused. “You guys talk a lot?”

“I mean, yeah, I guess so. It’s hard not seeing the girls everyday, as I’m sure you know.”

“Yeah, but Beca - you talk to her the most?”

“We’re co-captains Aubrey.”

“I know. I’m glad you guys are communicating.”

Chloe quirks an eyebrow. “You’re still my best friend Aubrey.” 

“Oh, I know. I just hope the garden gnome can keep up with you.”

Chloe laughs. They exchange a few more jokes, mainly on Beca’s height and grumpiness, and then hang up. She plugs her phone into the charger and lays it on her nightstand. Only two more weeks until move-in. She convinced Beca, but there is still much to be done. She needs to get in touch with the other girls, make sure they’re all at least getting ready. 

She can’t really remember the last time she spoke to them since the summer began. She’s been more focused on Beca, just because she was the only Bella who was a little hesitant about the house. Because Chloe needed Beca to be on board with it the most. She’s her co-captain. 

She’s about to be overcome by sleep when she sees her phone light up in the corner of her eye. She rolls over and sees that it’s a snapchat notification from Beca. 

The picture is of Beca in a coffee shop somewhere. She has crazy yellow glasses on. (Chloe’s favorite color.) 

“these would look better on you chlo”

Chloe quickly double taps to reply. 

(They go back and forth until 3am.)


	2. Lost Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, those angsty summer nights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Thanks so much for the kudos and comments on chapter 1! It's really encouraging as this is my first fic! :D)

Beca wants to see Chloe before they go back to school and move into the house. Chloe obliges because there is still a week left of summer, she just worked the last shift of her job, and she thinks it will do her good to engage in some human contact aside from her parents.

There is something a bit off with Beca’s tone lately, leading Chloe to believe that she wants to see her out of necessity rather than strict friendship. She seems oddly clingy; like she never wants Chloe to hang up, or stop texting her, or stop snapchatting her. As a result, Chloe hasn’t slept much in the last few days.

**Beca (11:03 p.m.)**

_you didn’t snap me last night_

**Chloe (11:03 p.m.)**

_you wanted me to?_

**Beca (11:04 p.m.)**

_i mean, you just have been for the last few nights_

 

Chloe starts to type again but stops when she sees another text pop up.

 

**Beca (11:05 p.m.)**

_so yeah_

_i wanted you to snap me_

**Chloe (11:06 p.m.)**

_haha, ok then i’ll snap you_

**Chloe (11:06 p.m.)**

_bec?_

**Beca (11:07 p.m.)**

_yeah?_

**Chloe (11:07 p.m.)**

_are you ok?_

 

There’s a pause, then. Chloe wonders if she’s overstepping. But of course she isn’t - this is Beca. One of her best friends. It’s no fault of hers to ask if anything’s the matter. Her friends are always her priority. She prides herself on that.

Beca doesn’t respond for a long time. Chloe fiddles with her phone case, taking it off and on, trying to convince herself that Beca just fell asleep or got lost in a mix or something. This shouldn’t be as nerve-racking as it is. For a moment, she even allows herself to feel angry with Beca for leaving her without a response. This could end up being a long night.

Chloe gets up around 3 a.m. to use the bathroom. She rubs her face and looks at herself in the mirror, wondering why the hell she keeps going to bed so late. The bags under her eyes are annoyingly noticeable. “God.” She mumbles, remembering her whole text ordeal with Beca. She turns off the light and speed walks back to her room. There’s a message on her phone.

 

**Beca (1:54 a.m.)**

_are you mad at me?_

 

What? Chloe shakes her head and pulls the charger out of her phone so she can lay down with it. She doesn’t like this weird situation she feels like she’s suddenly been thrown into. Talking to Beca lately is surrounded by a heavy tension, one that she can’t even begin to identify or understand. And now she thinks she’s mad at her? Where is this coming from?

 

She begins to type back, assuming that Beca is asleep and will read it in the morning.

 

**Chloe (3:16 a.m.)**

_beca that’s_

_why on earth would i be mad at you?_

_please call me tomorrow_

 

She plugs her phone back in and rolls over quickly, not wanting to have to engage if for some reason Beca is still awake and responds right away. They’re supposed to meet up at a halfway point for coffee in two days. Is this what it’s going to be like? Beca wondering if Chloe’s mad at her?

Chloe rubs her temples and sighs. She just needs to worry about getting back to sleep now. She wishes Aubrey was around to deliver one of her dad’s military-grade sayings. It would probably pull her out of this funk she slipped into over the course of a few mere hours.

In the morning, she’ll just call Beca and see what the problem is. That’s all she’ll have to do.


End file.
